Monday, November 23, 2009

Von Dutch Monday X

George Barris had a '50 Ford woody wagon that was bought to use as a "gofer wagon" for parts and supplies. After everyone in the shop banged it around for several years, Barris had the shop repaint it, and add some flames. Barris doesn't remember who actually did the flames, but he says they were done in-house.

After driving it around for a couple months, Barris had Von Dutch come in to do the pinstripe outline on the flames, some other "simple" striping, and letter the doors and tailgate with the shop name, address, and phone number. But, as with all things Von Dutch, nothing was ever a "simple job"......

Here's George Barris' account of Von Dutch striping the wagon:

" Von Dutch came in one afternoon to do a little striping on our flamed Ford woody wagon. It was supposed to be a simple small striping job. He opened up a bottle of wine, and started striping away, while we worked on other projects. The next thing we knew, it was Midnight and he wasn't finished, so I left him in the shop, and went home.

"When I came in the next morning, he was still striping. He had written a story into the pinstriping about the shop, and in doing so had turned a simple job into an art project that worked its way around the wagon. It was pretty wild, but typical of Dutch".

Here's the less common completed R/H mural shot, although there is a pretty good, more straight-on shot of this side in the Feb. '56 issue of Car Craft. In that article, done by "Jack Baldwin" - which I've heard was a pen name for Bob D'Olivo, who shot the photos, told his readers Dutch said this mural told the story of "....a man who eats a bowl of chop suey, while walking through a valley of mountains, contemplating a terrible suicide plot".

Here's the more common shot, the L/H side mural, but this time around, it's in color. In the previously mentioned Car Craft article, they said they didn't ".....want to go into the meaning of this mural at this time". I think that was a little editorial "fluffing" to add to the Von Dutch mystique for CC's readers. Barris says that there are caricatures of all the Barris employees in both murals, including Barris himself.

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About Me

Irish Rich is the owner of Shamrock Fabrication/Irish Rich Custom Cycles, a "no frills" custom motorcycle and fabrication shop. Rich has been involved with custom motorcycles and hot rods for over 44 years, and is a member of the Sinners, out of Southern California. Rich and his motorcycles have appeared in Street Chopper, DicE Magazine, The Horse, Easyriders, IronWorks, S&S Performance Times, Bigtwin, Show Class Magazine, Jesse James' documentary "The History Of The Chopper", One World Studios' "The Harbortown Bobber", and Joyrides Art Co.-"The Photography of Mark Kawakami". He also currently writes, and has written tech articles and feature stories for most of the custom motorcycle publications, and wrote an ongoing column for the first 16 issues of Greasy Kulture Magazine.